3 Pieces of Advice for New Teachers

Although I’m in my 22nd year in education, the jitters of the first few years easily come to mind. I recall peeking into the classrooms of more experienced teachers, admiring the ease with which they taught, and the seeming comfort of their students. In their first few years, many educators spend a lot of time trying to ‘get it right.’ Comfort and ease with backward planning, establishing connections with students and creating authentic projects are helpful priorities that support this goal. Now that I’ve attained my own level of comfort as an educator, I’d like to share advice with new teachers that I wish I had when I was starting out.

These three suggestions—knowing when to pivot, using the “handful rule,” and pulling back scaffolds—are my goals for this year.

1. Know When to Pivot

I approached my first years of teaching with the goal of doing everything perfectly. A few years into my career, I realized that the best teachers I observed were capable of and comfortable with modifying their lesson in the moment to accommodate any “hiccup” that came about—the disrupted flow after an interesting question that was unconnected to lesson in progress, an action perceived as funny to peers, or a fire drill. This comfort, I learned, is adaptive expertise.

Educators with adaptive expertise trust their instincts and use the strategy that they feel is best to address a particular situation. In How Experts Deal With Novel Situations: A Review of Adaptive Expertise, the researchers describe educators who can pivot and spontaneously create solutions. Instead of chafing against unexplained ‘hiccups,’ they possess a willingness and comfort with experiencing the unknown, and maybe even difficulty. They don’t mind if their activity goes slightly or entirely askew.

I‘ve learned to be flexible and lean into unexpected interruptions. After a fire drill, I might decide to reduce the amount of text we’re reading out loud and only focus on two really essential paragraphs. After a hurtful comment—whether accidental or purposeful—I typically explain to the class that we’re taking a pause to recognize and process how the sentiment it expressed doesn’t support the school’s mission and beliefs. If a student asks a harmless yet off-topic question, I might write it on the board and respond to it while they pack up for their next class. Lastly, if something outrageously silly happens, I might just give students a quick break to get their giggles and chatter out before continuing with the lesson. All of these pivots give the moments their due before getting back on schedule.

2. Use The “Handful Rule”

Teachers also need to be aware of when to throw in the towel and reroute their pedagogical path. When a handful of students do not understand a prompt on a handout or assessment, an excerpted passage, or an activity, I have learned to take a pause. Without letting pride get in my way, I reconsider my approach and relay the information or activity differently. If this happens in the middle of class, I will use student feedback to guide my approach; if on an assessment, I typically check in with a colleague before deciding next steps, which can include omitting or rephrasing the question, or reteaching the concept altogether. Any of the approaches rely on my willingness to be flexible.

I also pepper assessments throughout a unit of study. I grade an outline or small parts of a project separately. This ensures that students get enough feedback throughout the unit, and that I have enough data to know whether students need more opportunities to demonstrate their understanding.

I’ve found that using formative exit slips—that contain a brief question or two after an important lesson, or at the end of the week—allow me to determine what content is sticking, and what isn’t. Lastly, a good old turn and talk, followed by a share-out, enables students to learn from one another.

It’s also important to remember that sharing our instructional struggles with students allows them to see that challenges are normal, and asking them for feedback enables our content to be more student-friendly.

3. Help, But Don’t Overhelp

As a parent and teacher, I hope to provide young people with enough curricular supports, or scaffolds, to complete projects that are a little out of their comfort zone. At the end of the last academic year, I realized that I wasn’t pulling my supports away early enough, or at all, which hindered students’ independent practice.

While students do need supports, they also need me to take them away and explicitly teach them how to manage on their own with the materials they have. The New Teacher Project’s (TNTP) toolkit, Disrupting Barriers to Strong Instructional Scaffolding, reminds us that ever-available scaffolding won’t teach students skills that support independence in their academic journey.

This year, a goal of mine is to intentionally remove supports (extra handouts, posters on the wall) and actively teach students how to use their materials when problems arise. Scaffold removal can happen after one portion of a project cycle or after the second time a certain project is assigned. In its place, I will explicitly teach students how to use the materials already in their possession to prepare for a project, and also strategies to use if they find themselves feeling stuck. While it won’t be easy for them at first, they’ll learn the difference between damaging struggle, which leads to frustration and quitting, and productive struggle.

Like professionals striving for success in any field, educators can choose to pursue growth and change. The strategies I’ve shared can work for new teachers and the more seasoned as well.